Start investing with just $100

Investing isn't as difficult or as expensive as most people think. Most of us just don't do it well. Here's what we do wrong and how to start doing it right -- with just $100.

I'll let you in on a little secret about investing: It's not nearly as hard as you think. And it requires far less cash than you probably realize.

However, the fact that most people do it badly might lead a reasonable person to believe that investing is incredibly difficult.

How badly do most of us perform? A study by Dalbar, a Boston investment research firm, found that from 1984 to 2002, when the S&P 500 Index ($INX) grew at an annual rate of 12.2%, individual investors in equity mutual funds saw average returns of 2.6% a year, before taxes.

That's downright pitiful.

So with the bar set appropriately low, I'm going to show you a method for starting and managing a portfolio that requires very little money (just $100), even less effort, minimizes taxes and transaction fees, and is likely to outperform the vast majority of mutual funds over the long haul.